Robbie McNamara returned to the racecourse for the first time since his horror fall at Wexford last month to see Dermot Weld’s Ascot Gold Cup favourite Forgotten Rules make a winning seasonal reappearance in the Vintage Crop Stakes at Navan on Sunday.
McNamara sustained a litany of serious injuries, including fractured ribs, chest injuries and multiple fractured vertebrae in a crashing fall from Bursledon in the first division of the Cahore Point Handicap Hurdle on the eve of the Grand National.
The 26-year-old has displayed remarkable resilience as he convalesces at the Mater Hospital in Dubin and will soon be moving to the National Rehabilitation Hospital in Dún Laoghaire to continue his recovery.
McNamara, a stalwart of Dermot Weld’s yard for many years, helped to hone the nascent talent of Forgotten Rules during his time at Rosewell House and partnered the unbeaten son of Nayef to a debut success in a bumper at Punchestown just over a year ago.
“I kind of thought it would be nice to come out and see Forgotten Rules today,” McNamara told RTÉ Sport.
“I looked after him when I was in Weld’s and won a bumper on him first time out.
“I rode him out an awful lot at home and looked after him and built up a good association with him, so it was nice to come here today and see him do what I thought he would.”
McNamara has been effusive in his praise of the treatment he has received at the Mater but admitted to being delighted to escape to a more familiar environment for the day.
“It’s great to get out of the hospital,” he said.
“It was grand the first few weeks. I was trying to get better and I was focused on that, but the last week or that I’m kind of feeling 100% and it’s not nice sitting in a hospital bed when you feel fine.
“It’s great to get out and keep the mind right.”
The 6’3” rider also had news of his current condition and hopes for recovery, saying: “My head is fine, my arms are fine. The spinal cord was damaged, it wasn’t severed. There’s always hope of it repairing.
“I’m finishing up in the Mater and I’ll get to Dún Laoghaire in a week or ten days' time.
“That’ll be the start of the rehab and the physio.
“If there’s any hope of a bit of movement coming back, Dún Laoghaire will be the place to bring it out.
“If nothing changes, I’m able to do 90% of what I did before.”
Despite facing an uncertain long-term prognosis, McNamara’s (black) humour remains undiminished, as he quipped: “I might have to get on to the GUI (Golfing Union of Ireland) for a few shots back on my golf handicap.
“But other than that, I always wanted to train horses, it’s not going to stop me doing that.”
Getting going on my own. Nothing like a bit of independence pic.twitter.com/Ip9Nlg6dmd
— Robbie McNamara (@RobbiepMcN) May 12, 2015